June 27, 2013 Pohnpei, FSM -A major regional meeting of Pacific Island climate change and disaster risk management officials is set to kick off in Nadi, Fiji on July 1.
The meetings will be co-facilitated by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environmental Program (SPREP).
To ensure that the people of the Pacific Islands know what happens at the meetings, Journalists from the Pacific Island region were chosen to work as a team to cover the meetings that will end on July 11. The experience will also provide journalists with greater experience in covering large scale meetings on climate change and other issues of importance. A short bio of each of the media team members follows:
Halitesh Datt has been a multimedia journalist at Fiji Television Limited since 2011. He graduated from University of the South Pacific with a degree in Literature, Language and Journalism in 2012.
Sini Latu is a junior reporter working for the Tonga Broadcasting Commission where she has worked for just over a year.
Benjamin Kedoga is Journalist In-Charge at the National Broadcasting Corporation of Papua New Guinea East Sepik, one of the Provincial Radio Stations of NBC. He has been with NBC since 2005.
Daniel Namosuaia has been a reporter at the Solomon Star News Paper since 2010 He covers a variety of stories for the newspaper but is assigned to do Climate Change, Fisheries, and Socio-economic development stories.
Asenati Taugasolo Semu is the Senior Press Secretariat Officer at the Government of Samoa Office of the Press Secretariat where she has worked for four years. For the two previous years she worked at the Governmentowned Savali weekly newspaper. She also worked for four years at the Samoa Observer daily newspaper.
Bill Jaynes is the Managing Editor of The Kaselehlie Press based in Pohnpei, FSM. Jaynes has held the position for over seven years."
Support members and mentors include the following:
Makereta Komai is the editor of the regional news agency, PACNEWS, owned by the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA). She has a broadcasting background having worked as senior political reporter for Fiji Television (1996-1999) and Desk Sub-Editor Desk Sub-Editor for the Fiji Broadcasting Commission (1989-1996). She has been involved with SPREP's Regional Media Outreach Programme as a Trainer and as a Mentor for young journalists.
Evan Wasuka is currently a free lance journalist based in the Solomon Islands. He has extensive journalistic experience in the Pacific region.